The Deborah Griscom Passmore Watercolor Album contains 61 original watercolor paintings signed by Passmore, as well as several signed sketches, unsigned works, and two watercolors signed by another artist, Dora Paxon. The artworks depict flowering plants. Most of them have handwritten annotations of the flower's botanical name, initialed or signed by botanist E. L. (Edward Lee) Greene. The front of the album contains an anonymous, typescript biography of Passmore. Following the biography is a brief, handwritten note detailing Passmore's death, signed by Carrie Harrison. (Harrison's relationship to Passmore is unknown, but she may have been a botanist in the Bureau of Plant Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture.) Three newspaper obituaries about Passmore are attached to the end of the typescript, below Carrie Harrison's signature. There is also an undated photograph of Deborah Griscom Passmore housed with the album

2 linear feet (1 box) : 40 x 50 cm

Chiefly illustrations

Title supplied by archivist

Deborah Griscom Passmore (1840-1911) was an artist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Division of Pomology for 19 years. While her work for USDA focused on fruits, she was also a skilled painter of flowers and cacti. Passmore was born in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, on July 17, 1840. She was raised and educated in an orthodox Quaker community. She went on to study art at the School of Design and the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Among her teachers were several notable painters, including Thomas Moran. Following a year of study in Europe and several years teaching in Philadelphia, Passmore was encouraged to move to Washington, D.C. by William Wilson Corcoran, founder of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. In 1892, she accepted an appointment as a botanical illustrator with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Division of Pomology. Her works for the Pomology Division included watercolors and drawings of a wide variety of fruits, many of which were printed in USDA technical publications. Passmore also maintained an independent studio and taught art in Washington, D.C. She died at her home on January 3, 1911

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